Step 3 – Homes and businesses will then receive their energy efficiency package. Only accredited measures will be installed by appropriately-qualified installers, overseen by Government, giving consumers confidence that the deal they are getting is high quality and will save them money.
The Green Deal is expected to be available from Autumn 2012 and looks set to transform the market.
What we need to do now A common approach A key priority is the development of an evidence base that assesses the effectiveness of these different methods as they apply to the vagaries of the UK housing stock. This then needs to be incorporated into specifications and guidance that enable the most carbon and cost effective solutions to be identified and implemented. At present, construction companies, major housing stock holders, supply chains, the general public and the Government have no single, consistent, evidence-based source of guidance, advice and information on sustainable refurbishment.
The BRE Victorian Terrace project is making progress on this front – it was developed to generate an evidence base of knowledge on the most effective ways of upgrading the UK’s 6.4 million solid wall homes, so that they are highly energy efficient, cost less to run and emit significantly less carbon.
The demonstration project represents an important collaboration between BRE, Government and over fifty industry partners, including energy suppliers, major retailers, products manufacturers and contractors who have worked together for their collective benefit. The technical and commercial information derived from the Victorian Terrace will complement currently evolving Government policy, in particular the Green Deal, by helping to focus our refurbishment efforts on the best possible carbon and financial returns.
The project has involved the transformation of a Victorian stable block building with an Energy Performance Certificate rating of F, into a row of Victorian terraced houses that are B rated. In CO² terms this represents an 80% reduction in emissions.
The Victorian Terrace, on the BRE Innovation Park in Watford, is open to the construction industry and the householder to come and see and learn from it and apply the learning to their own projects and homes.
This project also links to more than five hundred exemplar refurbishment homes around the country of varying types and ages. Many of these are part of the Technology Strategy Board £10 million scheme for refurbishing social housing, called Retrofit the Future. A number of the homes involved are of solid wall construction. BRE and its partners are measuring
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these on a ‘before and after’ basis using a consistent and comprehensive series of tests to demonstrate the impact of the improvements, and the refurbishment case. The tests will provide empirical data that can be used to develop standards, specifications and guidance for refurbishment in line with Government requirements.
By testing and monitoring these projects, a series of refurbishment specifications will be developed along with the most carbon and cost effective improvement options to take a property from a low EPC rating to a level B or A – and deliver other benefits, such as water efficiency and waste reduction. The specifications will reflect economic and heritage constraints, and be designed to minimise technical risks such as condensation, rain penetration etc. They will consist of a series of sequential improvements, each being considered in terms of its CO² saving, cost, best value and best value carbon impact, so that actual improvements can be tailored to individual budgets.
These specifications and other guidance derived from these projects will be widely disseminated through a joint BRE and EST initiative, the National Refurbishment Centre, in 2011. The National Refurbishment Centre also aims to increase awareness of the benefits of low carbon retrofit solutions, help develop the skills base needed for undertaking the work, and foster the development of a more coherent market for this work.
Cross-sector cooperation Collectively, this perhaps unprecedented cooperation between Government, the housing stock owners, the construction sector and its supply chain, is likely to make significant measurable progress towards addressing arguably the largest and most difficult challenge the UK faces in reducing its CO² emissions.
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